deserialized
So, why am I away from Colombo? Because the client that I’m meeting thought that Sri Lanka was too dangerous to visit. In retrospect, I don’t blame the client. Random bus bombings tend to make anyone nervous, hell they make me nervous.
Which makes the news of a serial killer in the vicinity of the hotel all the more ironic. In a moody, murder and mayhem sort of way. No doubt sensing an opportunity, the guests at the hotel have been issued a mini travel-advisory of sorts. Do not, the advisory says in officialese, trawl bars in the region. Instead, patronize the inhouse watering hole. Also, reads the subtext in large lettering, don’t stagger around the streets drunk. In addition to drunkenly stepping on something that smells noxious, getting hit by an errant driver or tripping and falling over pieces of the pavement, a pedestrian is liable to have his head smashed in by a psycho.
So, cable TV and lots of nice facilities (and a comp mini-bar!) notwithstanding, I think we were all a bit bored with life this week. There is only so much drinking that can be done after a hard day of arguing about the nitty gritties of requirements; so everyone was feeling some degree of cabin fever. Even if it is a very large and luxurious cabin with a working ethernet port and super slowmo internets.
This is why the development manager in the client’s establishment and I were in the bar talking about the time honoured tradition of asking hotel staff for female company. Not that we were particularly inclined, of course - but we were in the company of a young, impressionable developer type who had gotten himself a free business class upgrade. “Easy”, we insisted. “Just walk upto reception and ask for some female company for dinner. We’re sure they’ll oblige you”. Wide-eyed, this little munchkin swallowed the story.
Strategically waiting until after we had all eaten dinner (so his motivations could hardly be mistaken), our hero sauntered upto reception and made his request. Until the very last minute, I thought he knew it was a joke. I only realized my mistake when I saw an emphatic head shake from the hotel staff.
Apparently that sort of thing doesn’t happen around here. Who knew?
On 22-Jul-08 at 9:55 pm,
tezcat wrote:
“The victims were hit on the head with a blunt object
and then set on fire.”
Dewd.
On 23-Jul-08 at 2:13 am,
drac wrote:
actually, that may or may not be true. I’ve heard wildly differing accounts of how the victims are killed - ranging from the pyrotechnics to a mundane bash on the head with blunt object
On 24-Jul-08 at 4:43 pm,
Flannelsz wrote:
blunt weapon, shlunt weapon The point being, it won’t be long before the fifteen fifty year old “sleuths” wrap up the case.
On 27-Jul-08 at 2:31 pm,
drac wrote:
will wait and see, Flannelszauce. I doubt it myself. Saw this hilarious newspaper story where a fortune teller had predicted that there are actually two - the killer and his/her accomplice. The accomplice apparently gains pleasure from the killings. Also, the fortuneteller dude had predicted that there would be one more killing before the guy gets caught.
Hope the serial killer didn’t read the newspaper.